“Mary at the Foot of the Cross”

“Mary at the Foot of the Cross”
Commissioned by the Archdiocese of Denver
This image is the focus of a nine year novena for the Archdiocese of Denver.

Things to meditate on.

Many icons throughout the history of the Church have portrayed Mary with her hands in this posture while at the foot of the cross. At the moment of her son’s death, she is remembering holding him as an infant in her arms, but now her arms are empty. She holds the swaddling cloth from his birth that she has saved all these years.

Two angels minister to Mary at this moment of great suffering.

The stars on her cloak are a nod to Our Lady of Guadalupe and to Revelation 12:1 “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”

The traditional three brighter stars on Mary’s head and shoulders point to her virginity before, during, and after the birth of Christ.

The MP OV in the upper righthand corner is the Greek abbreviation for “Mater Theou” or “Mother of God”. The lines over the letters show that the name is an abbreviation.

It is held that Jesus was crucified on the same place where Adam, the first man, was buried. His bones are often shown at the foot of the cross. Here we have Adam’s bones with the crossed bones and the jaw creating an “X C” which is the abbreviation in Greek for Christ. The crossed bones are made up of his rib, pointing to the creation of Eve, and to Mary being the “New” Eve, and his forearm bone (the ulna) with which Adam would have reached out to grab the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

The walls of Jerusalem are in the background; Jesus was crucified outside of the city walls.

In Luke’s gospel, 23:44-45, “ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Many icons show “the darkness of the sun” as an eclipse, which is shown in the upper left corner. The sky around the eclipse is a darker shade to emphasize this moment. Mary’s dark veil against the gold halo also echoes the shape of the eclipse.

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• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
• Paper is sourced from Japan

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